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There are two sides to the “rage” about the X Factor competition for the Christmas Number 1 in the UK. Some people are anti-Simon Cowell it seems, but there are other issues too. Not least being the question of musical talent.

Miley Cyrus, singer of The Climb, in Elle magazine

As seen on American Idol and now X Factor, Simon Cowell is in a deep anti-girl phase. So X Factor 2009 has been all about eliminating the girls and favouring the pretty boys. It has not mattered that the girls, especially Lucie Jones, had the best voices. Simon Cowell and his employees (sorry, the other judges) have chosen boys with little or no singing talent to get through the rounds.

The creators of the competitions against the X Factor single are talking more about music than money. Yes Simon Cowell will probably benefit whatever happens – but only in terms of money. X Factor 2009 has far greater ramifications:

zero musical integrity left for Simon Cowell

proof that Cheryl Cole is jealous of anyone with a good singing voice

proof that Dannii Minogue knows little about music

So if your vote is for musical talent, go buy Rage Against The Machine or one of the other suggestions for Christmas No.1. Anything but the limp and weak X Factor version of The Climb. Or you can buy the Miley Cyrus(photo) original of The Climb – a passionate and excellent vocal version of the song.

We know there are a lot of people out in the web universe who cast doubt on the talents of the Cyrus family, especially Miley and, more recently, Trace. There seems to be some old-fashioned bias that believes pop music is “bad” because it is popular. The good news is the people who buy music – rather than criticise – make their choices plain.

For us, the fantastic song The Climb by Miley Cyrus(photo 1 with Taylor Lautner) was a welcome winner at the MTV Movie Awards for Best Song From A Movie. It is a soaring track, full of passion and emotion, and easily one of the better inspirational songs of recent years. Some try to dismiss it as “only” pop, but we say it is a perfect 3-minute song in the best traditions of great catchy tunes with its full flavour captured by a talented singer.

Speaking of talent, up-and-coming star Ashley Tisdale(photo 2) won Breakthrough Performance for her work in High School Musical 3: Senior Year. Not everyone who is “good” comes through the Disney training schemes, but so much young talent is just that – talented. We think it’s great if youngsters develop and polish that talent with the help of Disney or American Idol or the thousands of music, dance and drama organisations around the world.

Every one of those avenues to success provide an environment for hard work – full stop. You may have talent and all sorts of other things in your favour, but the hard work can only be done by the hopeful star. The hours in the gym, or vocal lessons, or dance routines, will only pay off if they are backed up with regular, ongoing discipline. That is why we applaud the impressive young stars.

It was also great to see the Twilight film do so well in the awards, capturing an impressive list of “Bests” – especially the unexpected Best Fight (which Gigandet also won the previous year).

in another example of girl power in the music and movie charts, even P. Diddy and the major hype over Day26 could not stop Miley Cyrus and the Hannah Montana soundtrack reaching number one in the album charts.

the lead single from the album, The Climb, is a great power ballad, another strong indication of Miley’s graduation to be considered a serious singer and musician :: she has already stated that her ideal career would be as a respected songwriter :: we reckon the early indications are most favourable.

meanwhile, the public’s love affair with the Twilight saga has kept the soundtrack album near the top of the charts, and it is still at number four :: it seems the themes of the books and the films hit a nerve and resulted in the strong popularity worldwide :: we say yay !!

having just seen Miley Cyrus perform 7 Things all decked out in goth black and stomping and headbanging to the chorus, perhaps we have a new goth-rock-chick in the making :: her $1 billion earnings for Disney may be incidental, as we have ‘history’ with Britney Spears and Christine Aguilera graduating from the Mickey Mouse Club!

of course, Miley is no stranger to controversy as the American media machine is quick to find anything a little risqué in a person’s life :: especially a young teen celebrity :: and so we had the drama of Vanity Fair and webcam and/or phonecam shots of Miley with a bit of bra showing :: shock, horror!!

Miley bra controversy

whatever Miley’s future holds, both on stage and off, here’s hoping she continues to rock out.